Flights across Europe were targeted on Thursday for the second time this week by a “hoax” bomb threat, disrupting air travel in places such as London, Dublin and Helsinki.
At least 27 flights were affected, with some forced to land abruptly and others escorted by fighter jets, Reuters said.
aer lingus, FinnairWizz Air and Polish airline LOT confirmed to CNBC that some flights were affected.
It comes after seven airliners across Europe, two of them from the UK, were targeted on Tuesday with suspected bomb threats, in what the UK government described as a “malicious and disinformation threat”.
Finnair announced that two of its flights – one from Helsinki to Rome with 144 passengers and seven crew members and the other from Helsinki to Vienna with 177 passengers and six crew members – landed safely and customers disembarked from the aircraft after receiving “unfounded or false” bomb threats on Thursday.
Here’s what we know so far
Local authorities in Rome and Vienna inspected both flights and found no abnormalities.
“Unfortunately, as we have seen this week, air traffic is sometimes under threat. Other airlines in Europe have also faced hoax bomb threats,” Finnair said in a statement. “Threats are almost always unfounded.”
Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air confirmed to CNBC on Thursday that a flight from Milan’s Malpensa Airport to Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport and another flight to Warsaw were the targets of bomb threats.
The Bucharest-bound plane was nearing its final destination and landed safely when a threat was reported in Otopeni, and the aircraft was removed during a subsequent security check. Wizz Air’s Warsaw flight has been diverted.
“This incident comes amid a spate of similar bomb threats against multiple airlines across Europe in recent days,” Wizz Air told CNBC. “Wizz Air is not the only airline targeted; other airlines are also under threat, causing flight changes and security checks.”
Irish airline Aer Lingus on Thursday morning diverted a flight from Dublin to Rome to Normandy, while Polish airline LOT said two of its flights from Warsaw had suffered a security threat. Both flights passed through security, the airline told CNBC.
Air France CEO Ben Smith said flights were unaffected, but the organized threat was unprecedented. “This is unfortunate and we hope it does not give consumers a reason to delay or reduce their travel plans.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday that the incidents appeared to be “misguided attacks.”
He added, “We take safety very seriously, so if we see any issues or threats in our airspace, we close our airspace. So we’re jointly tracking this with all of our U.S. government assets and our European partners, and we’re working together to make sure that our airspace, our American travelers, are safe.”
